The endless saga continues...

[Thalassamania]

Before there were a lot of dive shops there where folks who had compressors on small trailers and who were available (at least on weekends) at local dive sites - it was very convenient

 

[Sas]

I've looked into buying a compressor. My old dive buddy bought one a time ago which was nothing special, it filled two tanks in about 20 minutes, 220 volt single phase, and it was $7000. It was a Nuvair (sp?). He's since moved away. At $5 a fill at a dive shop that's 1400 fills before it pays for itself not including oil changes, filters and any other sevice, so it's actually more. Dive shops provide air as a loss leader, they don't make much money on fills. So to think that a place is going to open up just to do fills is somewhat silly in the fact that in order to make money or even break even, fills would cost $10, $15? who knows.

Well I never said that fills would remain the same price. They may increase in price. If they are too expensive though and one person is making a massive profit, then another air fill shop will open and under cut them. This will continue until equilibrium is reached, basic market economics! So, nothing silly about it.

It may take 1400 fills to break even but that shouldn't take long. If I bought a compressor for personal use as all the LDSs had shut down I'd offer fills for a cost to other divers and I'd get back some of the money that way

Maybe in Australia you guys have clubs that have compressors and everybody works together. You probably have more divers per capita in your population too. Where I live there are not that many divers that dive locally so everything dive related is more of a challenge. Nothing is cheap in Northern California.

Actually, no. Australia is a big place and I do not live anywhere near the favourite diving spots such as the GBR, I'm down south where it is colder with crappier viz . So there is not a huge population of divers where I am. I cannot think of a club that has its own compressor of the top of my head (but there might be). A few clubs have their own boats though. I imagine if clubs can get together to get a boat, they could do the same easily for a compressor. I'd put in cash for that if it came to it.

 

[vladimir]

.

Heck, online gear sales is really just a return to the dive industry's original method of distributing gear mail order through catalog sales. Except now it's dangerous and ruining the industry.

I bought my first bc in 1976, I think, by mail order from Central Skin Divers in Queens or LI.

The dive industry and AIG must use the same marketing/public relations firm... this "too important to fail" line is getting awfully old.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Well I never said that fills would remain the same price. They may increase in price. If they are too expensive though and one person is making a massive profit, then another air fill shop will open and under cut them. This will continue until equilibrium is reached, basic market economics! So, nothing silly about it.

It may take 1400 fills to break even but that shouldn't take long. If I bought a compressor for personal use as all the LDSs had shut down I'd offer fills for a cost to other divers and I'd get back some of the money that way



Actually, no. Australia is a big place and I do not live anywhere near the favourite diving spots such as the GBR, I'm down south where it is colder with crappier viz . So there is not a huge population of divers where I am. I cannot think of a club that has its own compressor of the top of my head (but there might be). A few clubs have their own boats though. I imagine if clubs can get together to get a boat, they could do the same easily for a compressor. I'd put in cash for that if it came to it.

I was with a group of divers and were just talking about getting a compressor. We were laughing that when the LDS's around here go out of business we could get theirs for pennies on the dollar. I already have the boat, in fact we have several boats between us.
A comment about our local dive shops:
One shop that's closest to my house I won't even go into anymore. I finally got disgusted with the owner's fake friendliness and his schmoozing. The place makes me feel like I need to take a shower after I'm in there..

The other one a bit south is about ready to piss me off too with their attitudes towards BP/W and minimalistic diving. They don't like me anyway because I've sold so many freedom plate rigs out from under them locally and some of those people use them in that particular shop's classes as divemasters. The students want to know where they got them, LOL. They get smoked. Hey, I gave them a chance to carry it and they chose not to, so too bad.
They despise me and the whole minimalist movement because it means selling less stuff for them. Well, I have contempt for them for selling a bunch of junk to newbies so the feeling's mutual.

 

[PToone]

I have run into the same problem. A reg I was looking at was roughly 80% more in the LDS. I feel bad not helping them, but at the same time I feel justified in the fact that I certified through them, did Master Diver through them, and want to do Control Specialist and Instructor through them. I've given them enough money that I don't want to waste it on overpriced gear.

 

[Prostar]

When I worked in an LDS, one thing I noticed was that the online dealers were selling for lower prices than the shop could buy it. Their buying power must be massive to get their cost so low.

 

[ScubaSarus]

Let ms ask

How is it that Scuba Toys can offer such great deals and sell at such low prices (lower that what dealers allow shops to sell at).

Lets here it from them as they have a presence here.

I'd like to know the real reason and can the dive shops do the the same.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

One thing about the dynamic of the LDS vs the online retailers. The local LDS has a market base of a few hundred or a few thousand customers in their local geographical area. The online stores have the entire world, literally. The online stores sell so much stuff they can afford to mark the stuff down to 10 or 15% over cost. Your local LDS normally marks stuff up 100% on many or most items. If they tried to sell stuff at internet prices they wouldn't make it a week because their volume of foot traffic wouldn't increase enough to matter. Diving is a tight niche market and there are just not that many divers in any given geographical area.

However, many of those internet stores also have a regular shop as well.

 

[Diver0001]

If you ask me, the whole dealer setup is wrong. It's artificially inflating prices at the expense of both LDS's and the consumer and it's about time it stops.

I suggest a world-wide boycott of the worst offenders for the coming summer. We can organise it on scubaboard, take it local from there and make the manufacturers feel the heat of consumers voting with their feet.

First on my list is Scubapro.

Anyone want a poll?

R..

 

[Brandon]

Let ms ask

How is it that Scuba Toys can offer such great deals and sell at such low prices (lower that what dealers allow shops to sell at).

Lets here it from them as they have a presence here.

I'd like to know the real reason and can the dive shops do the the same.

Easy - Scubatoys is a real brick and mortar dive shop conducting business the way any other dive shop could if they so desired. No special gimmick there, they were simply an excellent local shop that saw online sales as key to their expansion strategy. Your local dive shop is foolish if they aren't doing the same, or pushing the industry to support this business model across the board.

Your post reveals your lack of knowledge on this topic... did you mean Leisurepro?

You have to realize that not all shops that sell online are created equal. Many are local shops that have recognized online sales as an integral part of their business. The growth and popularity of Scubatoys is easily attributable to this company having the vision to recognize this fact years ago, instead of playing catch-up like a few others are now. Heck, you could say the dive industry created the perfect environment for Scubatoys to swoop in and capture a large percentage of the "legit" online gear market.

If your shop is strictly an Aqualung / Scubapro / etc. dealer, they're likely to get left out in the cold because these two companies in particular REFUSE to allow their dealerships to do business as if they were in the 21st century.

-B